These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.(A) Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.(B) As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven(C) has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,[a] drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

“Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts(D) 10 no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.(E) 11 Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. 12 As you enter the home, give it your greeting.(F)

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 10:8 The Greek word traditionally translated leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin.

Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them as follows:[a] “Do not go on a road that leads to Gentile regions[b] and do not enter any Samaritan town.[c] Go[d] instead to the lost sheep[e] of the house of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ Heal the sick, raise the dead,[f] cleanse lepers,[g] cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Do not take gold, silver, or copper[h] in your belts, 10 no bag[i] for the journey, or an extra tunic,[j] or sandals or staff,[k] for the worker deserves his provisions. 11 Whenever[l] you enter a town or village,[m] find out who is worthy there[n] and stay with them[o] until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet those within it.[p]

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 10:5 tn Grk “instructing them, saying.”
  2. Matthew 10:5 tn Grk “on the way/road of the Gentiles.” The objective genitive “of the Gentiles” indicates the direction (BDAG 554 s.v. ὁδός 1.a); the restriction is on the territory to be visited rather than contact with individual Gentiles or Samaritans (compare the mission of the seventy-two in Luke 10:4 where even standard greetings along the road are prohibited). sn Since Galilee was surrounded on all sides by Gentile territory except the south, where it bordered on Samaria, this restriction effectively limited the mission of the twelve to Galilee on this occasion.
  3. Matthew 10:5 tn Grk “town [or city] of the Samaritans.”sn This is the only mention of Samaritans or Samaria in the Gospel of Matthew.
  4. Matthew 10:6 tn Grk “But go.” The Greek μᾶλλον (mallon, “rather, instead”) conveys the adversative nuance here so that δέ (de) has not been translated.
  5. Matthew 10:6 sn The imagery of lost sheep probably alludes to Jer 50:6, where the Jewish people have been abandoned by their leaders (“shepherds”) and allowed to go astray.
  6. Matthew 10:8 tc The majority of Byzantine minuscules, along with a few other witnesses (C3 K L Γ Θ 579 700txt* 1424c sa mae), lack νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε (nekrous egeirete, “raise the dead”), most likely because of oversight due to a string of similar endings (-ετε in the second person imperatives, occurring five times in v. 8). The longer version of this verse is found in several diverse and ancient witnesses such as א B C* (D) N 0281vid ƒ1, 13 33 565 579mg lat bo; P W Δ 348 syh have a word-order variation, but nevertheless include νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε. Although some Byzantine-text proponents charge the Alexandrian witnesses with theologically-motivated alterations toward heterodoxy, it is interesting to find a variant such as this in which the charge could be reversed (do the Byzantine scribes have something against the miracle of resurrection?). In reality, such charges of wholesale theologically-motivated changes toward heterodoxy are immediately suspect due to lack of evidence of intentional changes (here the change is evidently due to accidental omission).
  7. Matthew 10:8 sn See the note on leper in Matt 8:2.
  8. Matthew 10:9 sn The gold, silver, and copper probably represent varying degrees of provision, with gold the most valuable and copper the least. Jesus’ point appears to be that not even minimal provision (copper) was to be taken along, forcing the disciple to be totally dependent on God.
  9. Matthew 10:10 tn Or “no traveler’s bag”; or possibly “no beggar’s bag” (L&N 6.145; BDAG 811 s.v. πήρα).
  10. Matthew 10:10 tn Grk “two tunics,” that is, wearing one and carrying one as a spare. See the note on the word “tunic” in Matt 5:40.
  11. Matthew 10:10 tn Mark 6:8 allows one staff. It is possible that Matthew’s “two” with regard to the tunics (NET “an extra tunic”) extends to cover the sandals and staff as well (although “staff” is singular), making this a summary (cf. Luke 9:3) meaning not taking an extra pair of sandals or an extra staff (like the tunics). It is also possible the expression is merely rhetorical for “traveling light” which has been rendered in two slightly different ways.sn The point of the prohibitions seems to be not so much urgency as total dependence on God. Lack of a staff, in particular, would leave the traveler extremely vulnerable to wild animals and robbers.
  12. Matthew 10:11 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
  13. Matthew 10:11 tn Grk “Into whatever town or village you enter.” This acts as a distributive, meaning every town or village they enter; this is expressed more naturally in English as “whenever you enter a town or village.”
  14. Matthew 10:11 tn Grk “in it” (referring to the city or village).
  15. Matthew 10:11 tn Grk “there.” This was translated as “with them” to avoid redundancy in English and to clarify where the disciples were to stay.sn Jesus telling his disciples to stay with them in one house contrasts with the practice of religious philosophers in the ancient world who went from house to house begging. Staying in one location would give the disciples a base of operations for mission in the area as long as they were there.
  16. Matthew 10:12 tn Grk “give it greetings.” The expression “give it greetings” is a metonymy; the “house” is put for those who live in it. The translation clarifies this because it sounds odd in contemporary English to speak of greeting a building.